Thank you, John. That hymn, we've sung it quite
a bit, and I'll never forget when I first heard it, Violet
Bird requested it one Wednesday night when we were taking requests
for hymns, and I never heard it, and I've loved it ever since. And this morning I was singing
it myself. As you know, that's the radio
hymn. And I was struck with how scriptural
it is. I began to take each of those
verses and think about the scriptures that they were speaking of. And
every verse in that hymn is scriptural. Look it up for yourselves. It's
a very, very biblical, God-honoring, Wonderful hymn. Immortal. Invisible. Alright. Back over to Matthew
12 with me. Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12. Let's read beginning
with verse 14 through verse 21. Matthew 12, 14 through 21. And the Pharisees
went out After the Lord healed this man
with a withered hand, the Pharisees went out and held a council against
him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew, he withdrew
himself from them. And great multitudes followed
him, and he healed them all. And he charged them that they
should not make him known, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant, whom
I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to
the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets, a bruised
shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till
he send forth judgment unto victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles
trust. His name is, who this is speaking
of, without a doubt, is the Lord Jesus Christ. To him give all
the prophets witness. His name is Immanuel, God. with us, and by God's grace,
because God has revealed him unto us, many of us Gentiles
in here believe him and trust him, love him and live because
of him, and live on his every word, and love to hear his word
and worship him. It says in verse 14, the Pharisees
went out. Our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching
in the synagogue. Words of life. The Lord Jesus
Christ was preaching. And the Pharisees went out. They couldn't take it. These
fellows, Everybody thought they were holy. Everybody thought
they were godly. Everybody thought they were religious,
men of God. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
began preaching, they went out. They couldn't take it. Where
Christ was found, they left. The truth was being preached,
they left. They turned away their ears from
the truth. and want to go to fable. They didn't believe who
he was. His sovereign claims. He said,
if you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sins. Didn't
he say that? You believe not. They said, tell
us who you are. He said, I told you. I'm even
the same that I said from the beginning. Where's that? when
Moses asked me who I was. And I said, I am. He'd tell them
I am. That's who I am. Before Abraham
was, I am. They didn't like that. And they don't like it now. I
do. Do you? Oh, I'm so glad he's
God. I believe he's very God of very
God. I'm a Gentile. And I trust in
his name. I believe he's the Lord, Jehovah,
God. But the Pharisees went out. Didn't
John write, they went out from us? Because they were not of
us. If they had been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. But they went out from
us. Now, we have the truth here,
don't we? By God's grace, we have the truth
here. It's not the only place that has the truth. But in Franklin
County, I can't find it. Can you? I can't find it. And people come and hear this
gospel, and they go out. So you have to conclude. And
all of us, heathens of God, hear of God's Word. Must not like
to hear Christ pray, because that's all we do. Must not love
His sovereign flames, must not love to worship Him, because
that's what God's true people do. They worship the Father,
rejoice in Christ, and they don't use the flesh. Right? Pharisees went out. They went
out from those who worshipped Him. There were some there that
loved to hear Him preach, and they stayed there, didn't they?
Now listen, no one can be indifferent. to who Christ is, the message.
No, you can't be indifferent. You either love what he's saying
or you don't. You either receive it or you
reject it. You can't be indifferent. You can't. Our Lord said he does
not whip us, he's against us. You can't be straddling the fence
here. He that doesn't worship God and doesn't worship Christ,
they're not just A poor ignorant fellow, indifferent, they just
hadn't heard the truth. No, they don't love God. They
don't know God. They don't worship God. They don't care. It says
the Pharisees went out and held counsel against him, how they
might destroy him. Isn't that what Psalm 2 says? Why the heathen rage, he said,
and the people imagine a vain thing. The world's in a rage,
isn't it? The world's in an uproar about everything. against the
truth. And the people imagine a vain
thing. That's the religious people. They imagine vain things. And
the kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed and say, let's break
these bands asunder, these little groups of he that sits in the
heavenly land. And another psalm says they only
consult to cast him down from his excellency. A lot of religious
groups meeting today in the name of God, with the name of Jesus
on their lips, and they're bringing him down to the level of man,
aren't they? What we're hoping that God will
do is bring us up to him. The exalted glorify has to see
him as he is, but no man says, let's bring him down to our level. Oh, my. They held a council against
him. What are we going to do with
this Jesus? That's what they were saying. What are we going
to do about this Jesus? Is it any less blasphemous? When religious leaders, Pharisees,
stand up today and tell a bunch of God-hating people, what will
you do with Jesus? Is it? Is it any different? Is it any different? What will
you do with Jesus? He needs you. He loves you. He
died for you. God loves you. Come down front.
What will you do with Jesus? He's in your hand. Huh? It's no less blasphemous. They're
against it. They're against it. But we need
that God commanded all men everywhere to do what? Repent. We go preaching. God doesn't
need you. We go out telling people that hate God, you hate God.
And I don't know if He loves you or not. And I don't know
if Christ died for you or not. You need Him to. Bow to Him. Ask Him. We don't tell people
the promise before they fit the character. It says Christ withdrew
himself. Look at that, verse 15. When
Christ knew it, he withdrew himself from this. The Lord Jesus Christ
is not in modern religion. He has withdrawn himself. He's
not in popular make. Judaism, the Pharisees, the scribes,
the Pharisees, that was mainstream religion. Do you hear me? That
was popular mainstream religion. Everybody was a good Jew. Everybody
went to the synagogue. Everybody said they worshiped
God. Everybody gave their tithes. Everybody wouldn't miss a service,
the Sabbath, the Sabbath keeper. Christ went out. He said, let
us go therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. God's not in that little group
over here. That's a bunch of rebels. That's a cult over there. Here's where God is. Look at
all the multitude. Not so. It has never been so. It has never been so. That's
what they said about Noah and his little ark. God can't be
in there. Look, all these people, can they
be wrong? Dead wrong. Dead wrong. Christ went out. I believe Ichabod
is over the door of religion today. Ichabod. What's that? The glory of the
part of him. The glory of God. The glory of
Christ. The glory of his salvation. Ichabod. He withdrew himself. Now look
at the next. It says, But multitudes followed
him, and he healed them all. Multitudes followed him. Did
he save them all? No. It didn't say that, did it? Multitudes followed him. It says
in another place, Everyone believed on him. But it says he didn't
commit himself unto them. He knew what was in them. They
wanted their bellies filled. They believed he was Jesus, the
miracle worker. They believed that he was Jesus,
the good man. They would believe that he was Jesus that would
fill their bellies and do miracles for them. And he was a good man.
They liked the way he spoke and so forth. But it wasn't too long
after this, they were all crying with one voice, crucifying. And
it's the same today. It hasn't changed a bit. You
know that. Multitudes follow him. And he healed them all.
That is, everyone, whoever is sick. Now listen to this. Whoever
is sick, the Lord does it. Now if you tell people that,
watch them get angry. No, no, that's the devil. The
devil couldn't do anything if the Lord didn't give him orders. Satan's not God. But if anybody's sick, now this
is our comforted. We don't understand it, but we
know God purposed it, and somehow it's going to be good. If anybody's
sick, God made that happen. If anybody dies, he says, I wound,
I heal. If anybody's healed, God does
it. Oh, but no, the doctor, no sir. God did it. I am the Lord that
healeth them. Isn't that what he's saying?
I am the Lord that healeth them. Anybody's healed. God did it. Well, I know that these doctors
and specialists did it, and this medicine did it, and my daily
regimen did it, and my diet did it. Yeah, you fool. Give credit
to anybody but God, won't you? God did it. He healed them all.
You see that? If anybody's healed, He did it.
To God be the glory in all things. Well, He healed them all. He didn't save them all. Thank
God He saved some, didn't He? Verse 16, He charged them that
they should not make Him known. Why? Why? Number one, He doesn't need
them to. He doesn't need them to. You know how religion is today?
You know, we've got to do this, we've got to do that, we've got
to make Him known. You mean he can't reveal himself? It's up
to you to make him. He can't speak to people himself.
You've got to do it for him. Come on. Secondly, to make him
known because he had to go to the cross and die. Everybody had to forsake him
to fulfill the scripture. Everybody, including his disciples,
had to forsake him. He had to go to the cross alone
and bear the wrath of God. One time it says they came to
make him king and he passed from them. Number one, he already
is king, you don't make him king. Number two, he's going to be
crucified as a malefactor according to the scripture. He's going
to be crucified as a malefactor and they're going to mock him
as king. But he's coming back. as a king and every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess then. Then they will know who
he is. But he'll make himself known
to his people. You don't need to. That's for
sure. Well, look at the next verse.
It says in verse 17, that it might be fulfilled. You see,
everything the Lord did was to fulfill Scripture. Everything
the Lord said was to fulfill Scripture. Everything about Jesus
of Nazareth was a fulfillment of the Christ who was to come.
The scriptures that says the Christ is coming, God will come,
Emmanuel will come. They are they, Christ said, which
testify of me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham, all
the prophets to him give witness. They did what he did and said
what he said, everything to fulfill the scriptures. Scriptures must
be fulfilled. Christ must come. Christ must
suffer. Christ must die. Christ must
rise again. Christ must succeed. He must. He must. So everything was to fulfill
Scripture, prophesy of him. See, there's no doubt who this
is speaking of. You know why most people, religion,
don't preach and look at the Old Testament anymore? Because the Old Testament is
so clearly speaking of a sovereign God that does as He will, a God
who kills. And makes a lot. A God who wounds.
A God of absolute purpose. Electing. He had a people named
Israel and rejected the whole world. And people don't like
that. It's too clear, isn't it? Oh,
they hear that, all right. Well, let's put away that. God's
different. No, no, He's not. He said, I'm
the Lord. I change not. Right before the
New Testament was written, He said, I change not. And this God came, and His name
is Jesus Christ, and He hasn't changed. Same yesterday, today,
and forever. All right, now, go back to Isaiah
42 with me. This story, that prophesied of
Christ to come. It said it might be fulfilled,
spoken by Isaiah the prophet. Go back there to Isaiah 42. And
this chapter, as well as every other, is speaking of who Christ
is, what He came to do, and what He did do, and what He would
do. Look at verse 1. It says, Behold
My servant. My servant. Sent by God to do
something. Sent by God to serve His purpose. My servant. He calls Him Mine
elect. The one God chose to do something
for Him. My servant. You remember in Philippians
2, it says, he being equal with God, not robbery to be equal
with God, but took upon himself the form of a servant, Jesus
Christ came, yes, to serve his people, but first of all, to
serve God. To serve God's purpose. God's
purpose. To fulfill God's purpose. What
was that? To save a people. to bring in
an everlasting righteousness, to glorify Him, to glorify His
Word as a man, to glorify the Word of God, to glorify God.
All have come far short of the glory of God. All have failed
miserably. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Man was created to glorify God. And if all the Lord
looked down to see if there were any, He says there were none.
None. But then Christ came and says
the Lord looked down upon His Son and said, There's one. Oh,
the Lord is well pleased, it says, for His righteousness.
He'll magnify the law. He'll make it honorable. He'll
glorify me. Behold the man that I uphold. Mighty left. You know why He
did this? Not to show us how, but to do it for us. A covenant
head. You know how few people know
what that means. My servant, he's going to come
down and he's going to do for me what I need to be done. Glorify me. Come short of it. He's going to glorify me. He's
going to fulfill my word. He's going to magnify my word
and make it honorable. Everybody else has dishonored
it. They're stealing it, they're twisting it, they're corrupting
it. He's going to magnify and show it. It's the holy, pure
word of the living God to be feared, to be bowed to, to be
believed, to be trusted, to act according to. And Jesus Christ
is going to do that. God's well pleased with him. Well pleased.
I serve him. He's going to come down here
and do for these rebels that I have loved, I'm going to do a great work
for them. Now, he's got to succeed. John, he's got to succeed. He
can't fail or I'm going to perish. This is my only hope. You see, when religion today
is talking about he did all he can do and now it's up to you,
that means he's a failure. I don't need that one. I need
this one who says he'll never fail. He will not fail. He's
coming down here sent by God, God's servant, to do something.
Not try to do it, but to do it. I'm going to quit apologizing
and erasing my voice. He's not going to try to do it.
He's not going to ask people to help him to do it. He's going
to do it. Him. He's going to do it. Behold,
my servant. I sent him here. And he said
this over and over and over again. Christ said, He sent me. He said,
other sheep I have which are not of this folk, them I must
bring. They were given to me. I came
to do something. The servant. When he was a boy,
12 years old, he said, I must be about my father's business.
I'm here with a mission. I'm here to serve my father's
business. And when he's hanging on the
cross, he said, it's finished. Mission accomplished. Salvation
accomplished. Righteousness established. Sin
put away by the blood of my cross. And they'll all come. They'll
all come. All that the Father gave me.
My servant. Mine elect. If you're going to
choose somebody to do a job, you'd find the best, wouldn't
you? Now, I'm speaking as a fool. I'm speaking as a man here. But
God speaks as a man, or else we couldn't understand it. My
choice. It's not as if he had another
choice. It's not as if he looked around heaven to see who was
the best choice for the job. No, here's Michael, here's Gabriel,
here's Jesus. No, no, no. What he's saying
is, this is my elect, this is my choice servant. This is the
best of the best, the greatest of the greatest. This is the
one, my choice. You know, Scripture talks about
us being chosen in Him, elect in Him. found in Him, chosen
in Christ Jesus. They said, He's mine elect, whom
I uphold. Look at that, verse 1. Whom I
uphold, whom I declare. The Father declares Him. The
Father set Him forth. Whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation. Whom I uphold, that is, whom
I keep. Whom I will keep, and nothing
and no one will touch Him. Whom I uphold. I love thinking
about our Lord's manhood. I love that. He was a man. He
lived as a man. He had to. He limited his power
as God when he became a man. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He had to because he had to live
as us. He had to live as our substitute. He had to live as a man for men. He had to believe God, that just
shall live by faith. He had to walk by faith in God.
He couldn't provide for himself. He had to depend on God. He had
to humble himself before God. But he did, didn't he? He had
to go through suffering, be tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin. And he did. He's a man. He had
to become weak because we're weak. He had to suffer because
we suffer. He had to cry and weep because
we cry and weep. He had to be a merciful and faithful
high priest in all things pertaining to us that he may succor us. Whom I uphold and all my God
did. They tried to take him constantly.
They tried to kill him from a child. When he was a babe in his mother's
arms, supposed mother's arms, when he was a babe in her arms,
they sent out the word for the most powerful soldiers on earth
to go out and get him. They couldn't touch him, a baby.
And they were after him till the day that finally God delivered
him up. Till the day that God said, all
right, this is the time. And He delivered them into their
hands by the determinate will of counsel and foreknowledge
of God delivered him up. Take it. And what does man do? That's what the free will of
man does, so-called free will. Oh, my choice, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, he said. My soul delighteth.
He called him his well-beloved son. Whom I delight. He said
in verse 1, I put my spirit upon him. John said it when he was
baptizing. And the Lord came. The Lord said
it to John. Upon whom you see the Spirit
descending, that's Him. Get up. You're in the presence
of the King. And here came this rabbi, this
Jewish rabbi, this young man of 30 years, Jesus of Nazareth. And John got up because he saw
the Spirit of God set ascend like a dove and land on Him.
And John said, this is Him. This is the Christ. The Spirit
of God. landed on him, bearing witness
of him. He had the Spirit, Scripture
says, not by measure. We have the Spirit by measure.
I completely depend upon the Spirit of God to make this message
of any benefit whatsoever. We have it by measure. Here a
little, there a little. Not Christ. Not Christ. He's the one that sends the Spirit
out. He's the one that has the Spirit without measure. He's
the one that directs the Spirit together. That's who He is. That's who the Spirit said He
was. And look at this. He said, He shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentile. Now, people, we say we preach
Christ, and that's what we do. Why? Every time we preach Christ. Why? Because it's a good slogan?
Because it's what we're supposed to do? No. Because Scripture
preaches Christ. Because Christ prayed to Christ.
Because we must see Christ. We must look to Christ. We must
believe who Christ is. If you do not believe who He
is, we'll die. If we don't keep looking to Him, we'll die. We'll
be in distress. We need to keep preaching Christ,
and that's what I'm going to do by the grace of God until
the day I quit preaching, holding him up like Moses lifted up the
serpent on the pole that all might see him. If somebody doesn't
look to Christ and see who he is, they're going to die in their
sin. And if we all don't keep looking to Christ, we're going
to fall away. So we keep preaching Christ,
okay? This is all about Christ. Anybody need Christ? Okay, I'm
going to keep telling you about who He is, all right? This is
why He came. This is who He is. We've heard it before. Let's
hear it again. Okay? God's servant. Came to do a job.
What did He do? He did it. This is my hope. He's God's elect. Are you one
of God's elect? If you're in Christ, you are.
That's the only way you know. If you love Him, if you believe
Him, if you trust Him, if He's all your hope, then you're an
elect. Knowing, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, your election of God. You trust Christ. You believe
Him. His servant. Whom God loves. God loved me. You know He doesn't love you
because of you. He loves you because of Christ. That's His
elect. That's who His people are. My
servant. My elect. It says He'll bring
forth judgment to the Gentile. This is what I'm trying to say
here. And He says it three times. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment to the Gentile. Judgment
unto truth. Judgment unto victory. Now what's
that mean? Judgment. Judgment. You're listening
to this, and you're exercising some judgment. You're listening
to this, you're reading this, and every day, in everything,
you exercise some form of judgment. You hear something, you think
about it, and you have an opinion about it, or a verdict about
it. Barnard used to say this to preachers. He said, preach for a verdict.
Preach for a verdict. Don't preach just to hear yourself
preach. Don't preach just to get the job done, but preach
for a verdict. You want people to hear this
and to respond. You want people to come to a
conclusion. Judgment. He'll bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Gentiles don't have any judgment. Do you hear me? Romans 1, this
is what it says, their understanding, that's what judgment is, understanding,
is darkened. We've never been in a day of
more darkness. Darkness. We're in a famine of
the Word that Hosea talked about. Not of bread, we have more than
that, and our hearts could with, but of the hearing of God's Word.
They've turned away their ears from the truth unto fable. We're
in a dark day. We're in the dark ages. We have
more Bibles than ever, but less Bible being preached. Less truth
being preached. Less light. People with less
light. People sitting in darkness. of
sin. Why is the world in such a mess
that it is? Because the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God has not been revealed to them. In Romans 1,
it says that they were not thankful, didn't glorify Him as God, were
foolish, and their heart was darkened, professing themselves
to be wise, they become fools, changed the glory of God, and
God gave them over to uncleanness, and the whole land would be like
Sodom and Gomorrah. And they declare their sin like
Sodom. They're not ashamed of it. And they receive the just
recompense of their war. And they change the truth of
God into a lie and worship man more than the Creator who is
blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them.
Our society is a reprobate society. There's no doubt in my mind.
It's not going to get any better. It's just going to get worse
until Christ comes. Mark it down. have come. We know that He has
come and given us an understanding. We wouldn't have it if He wouldn't
have come to us and given us an understanding. He had to go
to Grunby and bring you up here to hear the truth like the woman
at the well and show you. You don't have understanding.
You're a Gentile. You're a heathen. Like Brother
Dan said about his Son, you know, on that doctor's report. You remember that? No. He's heathen.
He's born heathen. He doesn't have any understanding.
He's born, comes forth from the womb, speaking lies. But Christ
will come. He said, My sheep will hear my
voice, and I will give them an understanding. Gentiles. Gentiles. Look at verse 2. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
He shall not cry. And Matthew says he won't strive. You know, when you and I try
to get people to hear us or whatever, we have to raise our voice, don't
we? We have to raise our voice. I was listening to the dear brother
Tommy Robbins preach a message the other day, and he started
raising his voice a little bit, and he said, now just hear this.
He said to hear this. finish, you can go back to sleep.
Because that's us. And we have to raise our voice.
And when we're getting mad, we raise our voice to Him. We strive
with people. That's not Him. You don't have
to raise your voice. We did, but we didn't have to.
You don't have to strive. His enemies won't believe you.
Oh, you're not going to strive with Him. The disciples came
and said, don't you know what the prayer is? They were offended.
Leave them alone. I don't have to convince them. I'm not here
to try to convince them. Jesus Christ didn't come down
here to try to get people to believe Him. Then or now. And neither do His people, preachers
and witnesses. We don't go out and try to convince
people. You'll not cry. You'll not strive. The Lord went about calmly, confidently. Calling out his sheep. He knew
where they were. It's not that he was looking
for them because he didn't know where they were. He knew where
they were. Where he put them. He'd come
to a little inlet, a little fishing inlet, and there'd be a hundred
boats out there. He'd say, there they are. Right
out there. Third boat on the left. Andrew and Simon and Andrew,
right there. Hey, you two, follow me. They'd
walk down a little further and there'd be about 20 or 30 more
boats. Yeah, there's James, John, follow me. And they followed him. Why? Because
he said, my sheep here, my boy. And they followed him. He's not
trying to get people. You see, this is my comfort and
my hope for those that don't know him. This is not up to me.
I want your children to know Christ. And I'm not going to
beg them. I'm not going to plead with them. I'm going to pray
for them, and I do every day. But if they're one of God's elect,
they're going to hear it. That's my comfort. They're going
to hear it. And they're going to come. We
don't cry and beg and plead with them. When the Lord is pleased,
they're going to come crying. and begging and pleading. We
don't stand up here like these false preachers do and say, won't
you please, won't you please. No, no, no, no. After the Gospel
was preached at Pentecost, everybody else was saying, oh, please,
please, please. What are we going to do? Huh? Yes, that's the God of Scripture.
That's the power of God's Gospel. That's the Christ of Scripture.
No, He's not trying to get anybody to believe. Walking about calmly,
collectively, constantly, calling out His own. finds them where
he puts them, at a well, up a tree, in a boat, and they will follow
him. Yes, they will. And it says,
oh, verse 3, a bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench, till he bring forth
judgment unto truth. Oh, my. As powerful as the Lord
is, And no man spake like this man.
The voice of the Lord, Psalm 29 says, breaketh the cedars. Causes the hinds to calve. The rocks breaks them asunder.
As powerful as he was, that voice that said, I am, and they all
fell backward to the ground. He's tender and kind and gracious
and compassionate. And no man spake like this man
in such tenderness, and such grace, and such love, and such
compassion, and such feeling, and such... And the tender, it
says, a bruised reed shall he not break. A bruised reed. You that have gardens, and you
go out there and you find A reed is a stem, is what it is, of
any kind of plant. You go out there in your garden,
and my garden, I always hesitate
to say, but it's doing real well this year, no thanks to me. The
plant, the Lord watered, and He's given increase. But I go
out there, and I keep propping up tomato plants and pepper plants,
and they're so weak, and tender, and you'll find a branch that's
broken, that's fallen over and tender. Now, sometimes I will
just take the snips and clip it off and throw it away. Okay? But this says the Lord will not
do that. tender, the weakest believer,
the one that is most prone to fall and is about to break, the
one that is about to break. Oh no, he won't break. And here's
the point, and Matthew Henry said, more is implied than is
written. that not only will He not break
that weak, tender little plant, or that weak, tender believer
that believes in Him, but He will cause that, He will nurture
it, and mold it, and make it, and dung it, and water it, and
cause it to grow into a cedar tree planted by the rivers of
water. From just a worthless, finely
little broken plant to a tall cedar The birds can nest in the
branches. Oh man, a bruised reed will he
not break? Spurgeon said, the least faith,
the weakest faith, the tenderest faith is faith. A diamond that
big is a diamond. A mustard seed is seed, and he
will not despise it. He will not break it. And he
says, look, smoking flax. Oh, you old people. Who am I
going to call on? Old people. I'm not looking at
anybody in particular, but you old people, over 70. Back in
the years of the coal oil lamps and before that, before that
actually, what wicks were made of was flax. Flax was a poor
man's garment. Flax is a plant, a plant that
the Lord grow, and you make it real blond. That's why we call
them flaxen hair. Flax was woven into poor man's
clothing. That's a good illustration. And
flax was used as a lamp. Bundled it together, tied it
together, and stick it down in a vase full of olive oil and
put a match to it, and it's supposed to burn. It's supposed to bring
light. Okay? That's what it's for. Flax. But every now and then
it might be wet, or it might be green, and it starts smoking. It's not giving light. It's being
noxious, isn't it? Like the lamps we use now. Sometimes
they just smoke and smoke, and they don't give much light to
them. What do you got to do? Tell me. Trim it. Tremets cut
off the dross. The Lord said, You are the light
of the world. Boy, I'm a poor light. How about
you? You're the salt of the earth,
but the salt lost its shape. Oh, I'm a mighty poor. Be ye perfect. Oh, I'm far from
perfect. I want to be perfect, but I'm
not even close. But it says he won't quench it. She's smoking. She's obnoxious. No, there's life there. I'm going to flame that flame.
I'm going to trim that wick. I'm going to send this and send
that. Cut off the dross that the gold might be refined. The
weather will start burning a little bit. It will start shining a
little bit. Isn't that wonderful? Smoking flax, he won't quench. He won't put it out, but it will
break forth. It will bring forth judgment
unto truth. Judgment unto truth. What's the
truth? Christ. There will come the absolute
knowledge, belief, and trust, and understanding of who He is. Of this Word. Is there anything
in this book you doubt? Anything? There were times as
a young man that people would bring up questions that I wasn't
yet prepared, knowledgeable enough in the Scriptures to understand
the answer. But the more I read, the more
foolish man gets and the wiser God becomes. The more I look
into His Word, the more ridiculous is this world and everything
in it, the more vanity it is and the more glorious is God's
Word. How about you? judgment of the truth until we
come to finally an understanding of let God be true, and every
man a liar, that Jesus Christ is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Hmm? Yes, He is. Come to that
clear judgment. Yes, we do. And verse 4 says,
He shall not fail. He shall not fail. nor even be
discouraged. When Christ came, He said, we're
going to Jerusalem. In the very beginning, it says,
He set His face like a flint. We're going up to Jerusalem.
And He says, there they take the Son of Man, and they will
crucify Him and bury Him. But the third day, He will rise
again. And he went. And he went. They said, he's going to kill
you. They're going to kill you. No
man taketh my life from me. I lay it down. This commandment
have I received in my Father. I'm going there. And I'm going
to do what I came to do. You don't want to be discouraged.
The Lord is not discouraged. He does not discourage. He's
not weeping. That's why I don't like that
verse that we sing in that one hymn, Jesus weeps and loves us
still. No, He does not. He's not weeping. He wept as a man over sin. He
wept as a man over our unbelief. But He's not weeping now. No,
no, no. He's laughing. He that sitteth
in the heavens is laughing for the foolishness of man and for
the joy of His people who are soon coming home. And he won't
be discouraged until he has set judgment in the earth. Judgment
in the earth. And I love what one of the men
said this, I forget now who it was, but he said, Christ is going
to have a people in this earth out of every tribe, kindred,
nation and tongue on this earth, in the world. A people who once
did that which was right in their own eyes, now, no, no, no, no. They do that which is right in
God's eyes. They don't walk a way that seems
right to them, they walk in His way, the paths of righteousness.
Oh no, they're not foolish, they're not demonic, they're sitting
clothed in their right mind now. Knowing, believing the truth. A people with wisdom, a people
with knowledge, a people of understanding. of who God is, what man is, who
Christ is, why He came, what He did, who He did it for, what
He's going to do, shall do. They understand. And they will
give Him perfect peace. And they have peace. It says
the isles will wait for His love. The isles will wait for His love. I couldn't help but think about
Well, by the dam parks down there in the islands and other places,
the isles are going to hear it. They've got to. One time there was a little pagan, heathen
island called Melita out in the middle of the Mediterranean there.
A bunch of heathens dancing around naked, you know, and a boat shipwrecked. It was a crash, a shipwreck.
And everybody on ship made it. And here's this little short,
bald-headed fella sitting by the fire. And they're all watching
him. And he said, Pastor Paul, God
sent him to there. And everybody went out, sat and
heard him pray. They're going to wait. They got
to. And the Lord's a good time. And maybe some of our heathen,
the Lord will be pleased to send them judgment. Okay, John. All hail the power. Number 42.
Let's sing this in closing. All hail the power of the Almighty
King. 42.